Indonesian doubles reach Seville quarters
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian doubles teams cruised into the quarterfinals of the World Championships at San Pablo Stadium in Seville, Spain, but men's singles Marlev Mainaky and women's singles Lidya Djaelawidjaja fell in the third round.
The country's best hope of bringing home a title in the men's doubles, Tony Gunawan and Halim Heryanto, seeded fifth, had a comfortable victory over Liu Yong and Chen Qiqiu of China 15-13, 15-5 on Thursday. The All England champions will now face Olympic silver medalists Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung of South Korea, who upset top seeds Jens Eriksen and Jesper Larsen of Denmark 15-7, 15-6.
Indonesia's women's singles Lidya Djaelawidjaja failed to avenge an earlier loss to China's Dai Yun, falling 8-11, 11-0, 11-5. Lidya was beaten by Dai in the 1999 World Championships in Copenhagen.
In the mixed doubles, Indonesia's veteran partnership of Bambang Suprianto and Minarti Timur reached the quarterfinals after ousting China's Chen Qiqiu and Chen Lin 15-12, 15-9. The Indonesians will now have to deal with heavy favorites Kim Dong- moon and Ra Kyung-min of South Korea, who crushed Germans Bjoern Siegemund and Nicol Pitro 15-6, 15-7.
Also advancing in the mixed doubles was the relatively inexperienced Indonesian duo of Vita Marissa and Nova Widhianto. They had a comfortable 15-8, 15-8 win over Lee Jae-jin and Hwang Yu-min of South Korea, and will next meet Olympic champions Zhang Jun and Gao Ling of China.
Indonesia's reunited women's pair of Deyana Lomban and Indarti Issoliana were pushed to the limit in an 83-minute match against Nicol Pitro and Nicole Grether of Germany, finally triumphing 5- 15, 17-16, 15-3.
But compatriots Vita and Etty Tantri bowed out 15-5, 15-6 to fifth seeds Gao Ling and Huang Sui of China.
The biggest upset in the Indonesian camp was seventh-seeded Marlev's 7-15, 15-7, 15-5 loss to giant killer Agus Hariyanto of Hong Kong, who earlier took out Olympic champion Ji Xinpeng of China.
"I thought I could win because I know his game quite well," Agus said as quoted by AFP.
Marlev told The Jakarta Post by phone from Seville, that a lack of preparation left him unable to return Agus's slow shots.
"If we played fast I'm sure I could have won, but he always slowed down the game and it was hard for me, specially because I still feel some pain in my right knee."
Agus' victory was the latest in a string of impressive results scored by Hong Kong players at the championships.
Tam Kai-chuen, the world number 32, stunned the competition on Wednesday when he knocked out Malaysian top seed Roslin Hashim 15-10, 15-8.
Roslin, the Swiss Open and Japan Open winner, was very disappointed with his unexpected second-round loss.
"I know I came here as the world number one and the top-seeded player and I did not expect to lose as early as in the second round. But Tam played very well and took control of the game. He gave me no room to make a comeback even though I tried to come back in both games," he was quoted by Bernama as saying.
Other seeds including Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark and Pullela Gopichand of India also reached the quarters.
Indonesian shuttlers Taufik Hidayat and Hendrawan were scheduled to play their third-round matches at 6 p.m. local time (11 p.m. Jakarta Time). Taufik is scheduled to meet Wong Choon Hann of Malaysia while Hendrawan will face Tam. (yan)